Tag Archives: manna

We pick up today in John after Jesus had just explained that he is the manna from heaven and we are to eat his flesh and many are not going to understand it. In some ways I feel for them. Can you imagine a guy telling you that you have to eat his flesh? What do you say to that? Thanks I’ve always wanted to join the Donner Party? Yesterday you gave us fish, but if your on the menu today fine, hand over that leg, just let me wash it first.

John 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

This is, almost certainly, not the twelve that said and asked this because you will see him turn to them specifically in verse 67. But the question is interesting because emphasis is on the word hard. This word word hard in the Greek means dry. Yes it can be used figuratively to mean harsh or hard, but it is this word dry that is interesting, because if you don’t have the living water it will be too dry and hard for you to understand.

John 6:61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

The word offend here doesn’t really carry the thought so let’s go to the Greek: G4624, σκανδαλίζω, skandalizō, skan-dal-id’-zo: To “scandalize”; from G4625; to entrap, that is, trip up (figuratively stumble [transitively] or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure): – (make to) offend.

So He is asking: Does this trip you up? So I ask does it trip you up? We of course have the luxury of hindsight and can understand He meant His word, but is there anything that trips you up? Do you have something you read in the bible that makes you say, “oh man this can’t be really from God?” Is there something you read in the old testament that makes you go, “God wouldn’t do that?” Do you read the writings of Paul and say, ”This can’t be right” or “This makes God a bigot?” I know for a fact there are many places where that is the case. What do you do when you come to those places? Do you stop following him? Do you just ignore those spots and hope nobody finds out? Or do you go to Him and ask Him? I will tell you a secret, if you find a place where a saying is hard, just add Water.

John 6:62Whatand if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

Christ came from Heaven. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

They believed the manna that Moses gave because they knew it came from heaven. They don’t understand that Christ is the same, so He is asking if they would believe if they saw him return back to heaven. Would they eat of His flesh then?

John 6:63It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,theyare spirit, andtheyare life.

Here He is trying to explain to them that he isn’t talking about the meat attached to his Spirit.

John 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. (65) And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

You can’t fake belief with God. You can pretend if you want and many will, but we are coming to the end of this whole scene that started with him feeding the 5000 and only those that endure to the end will be saved.

John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Go back to that Greek word we pulled up earlier. Do you see the word apostasy there? That is the great falling away. Paul tells us about it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. It is the great falling away before the return of Christ. Does anyone else find it interesting that this verse is 6:66?

John 6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

Will you leave him because of some hard words? Will you stop believing in him because someone dug something up from the ground they say is truth? Do you seek to save your life with the dry words found from the earth? God protects his Word and it is his Word that will endure forever.

John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

Will you be a Peter that will step out of the boat and walk upon the sea? Yes, He started to sink, we all do, at times, but if we keep out eyes on him the waters of this world will not overcome us and we keep our eyes on him by staying in His word.

John 6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

How sure are you? Was Jesus just an apocalyptic Jewish teacher from the 1st century or was He the Son of the Living God, who was crucified and rejected by this world and who is going to return to gather up his flock? That is for you to answer. Nobody can do it for you. Come judgment, it will be just you and the Father. I pray it isnt’ the first time you talk to him because He loves you and He wants to speak to you today and because the body of the Son given the veil is rent and you can come to him.

John 6:70 Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (71) He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

A lot has and can be said about Judas, but I don’t want to do it here. I will say more when we get to the 14th Chapter and I may even do a post just about him.

The next chapter brings us to the Feast of Tabernacles which is the last of the high Sabbaths that God ordered us to follow and the only one that has yet to be fulfilled.

We left off with Christ speaking to the group that crossed over the river Jordan without him. Now they want to know what they can do work the works of God. I have no doubt they wanted to know how they can have a couple of fish and keep eating. No doubt they had Elijah in mind and how God made sure that their oil and meal never ran out. Let’s back up to verse 30 to help pick up the thought.

John 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? (31) Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

I think we all know this story.

John 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. (33)For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Jesus is the light of the world, it’s life. He is the Word and it is that word which is that bread. Remember what Paul told us? (1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come). That wasn’t just he things he mentioned in that chapter. It is the entire bible. That manna was a picture God showed us so that we could understand the larger spiritual truth.

John 6:34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

Sure this sounds good. It was nice when all they had to do was go out and gather the manna.

John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Notice how you have to go to him. Just as you had to go out and gather the manna.

John 6:36But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

Eyes to see and ears to hear, but again they did not come to seek him. They came for the free lunch.

John 6:37All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (38)For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

This is the example that Christ gave us and that is simply to do the will of God. And how do you know what God’s will is? You eat the bread and put it inside of you. And what is the bread? The Word of God.

John 6:39And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

He’s coming back.

John 6:40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

They key is to believe upon him, but that doesn’t mean you just believe that he exists. The demons he cast out knew who he was and believed he was the Son of God. This word believeth here is G4100

Πιστεύω, pisteuō, pist-yoo’-o From G4102; to havefaith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): – believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

It takes faith that He is who he says he is and not just a magician running around performing tricks. This G4102 that the word comes from is persuasion or moral conviction. Are you completely convicted in your faith?

John 6:41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. (42) And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

See He was good enough to follow for a free lunch, but that is all they cared about. Be careful you are not the same. It is easy to just use Christ for your own gain or to make yourself seem something you are not. Look to your heart and see if you have the complete moral conviction it takes. If you don’t then you might as well leave because playing Christian doesn’t cut it. God knows your heart and he will not give you to Christ if your heart is not right.

John 6:43 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

You would think at the very least they could confront him about these issues. If they weren’t sure. What a bunch of wet noodles.

John 6:44No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (45)It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

This is one of those verses where you will have guys running around saying they don’t need to read the bible because God will teach them. Yes, God will teach you through the Holy Spirit, but he uses the Word to do it and you use the Word to correct you if what you think He taught you didn’t come from Him.

Let’s take a moment and look at what God has to say about this, since this topic comes up from time to time and some of you meet knuckleheads that think they don’t need to read or study the bible to know what God would want. What is ironic is they start off by quoting scripture to prove their point. Let’s look:

John 14:26But the Comforter,which isthe Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Taking this one verse they say since we have the Holy Spirit now we don’t need to do anything else, right? Heck by this reasoning we shouldn’t bother going to school because the Holy Spirit will teach us math, science, language. The first problem is they don’t read the whole chapter. Let’s back up some. John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Keep Christ’s words? Well golly, where might those words be? Are they not written in the Bible?

John 14:24He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

Wow seems to be that you could be in a look of trouble if you don’t keep His words. “But wait, I have a hard time reading and understanding and God knows this so he doesn’t make me have to read it. He does things differently with me, you just wouldn’t understand.” Really? That’s odd because for most of human history a majority of people couldn’t read which is why in the beginning God said this:

Deuteronomy 31:10-11 And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, (11) When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

Every seven years thou shalt read this law. Do you have trouble reading? No problem, find yourself a good teacher. Cannot find a teacher? Guess what we have audiobooks in this day and age. But, perhaps your difficulty in understanding is a lack of desire to seek him out.

This isn’t a new thing and it isn’t a thing that God takes lightly because it is mentioned many times in the bible.

Isaiah 28:9-10 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. (10) For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Notice how we again are to hear it all and take it step by step? Look at Ezra and Nehemiah:

Nehemiah 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Does your preacher cause you to understand the reading or does he just talk about french fries?

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Have you studied? Study what? I think you know. I have beaten this to death I know, but look at this: Matthew 12:3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

Do you know Christ asked the question ten times, Have you not read. Do you want him to ask you that when He returns? I pray He wont need to because you will have His stamp of approval in your forehead. His seal.

John 6:46Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. (47)Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (48)I am that bread of life. (49)Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

That whole generation in the wilderness died because for forty years they complained and wanted to go back to Egypt. So God let them die. Today the world is Egypt and when you turn your heart to God and accept Christ into your life you leave the bondage of Egypt. Remember Lot’s wife and do not look at on it, for there is death. Joshua and Caleb were the only ones of that generation that were allowed to go to the promised land. Think about that. Many are called and few are chosen.

John 6:50This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

Do you want eternal life? Listen up.

John 6:51I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

We do communion in remembrance of Him and his sacrifice, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Christ is the Word and it is in the Word that you will find that bread and yes the Holy Spirit will teach you all things if you stick to His word and seek him out. Many wont. This bunch of knuckleheads wont as we will see. They followed him for the bread. You could even say they became Christian until they learned what that entailed.

John 6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? (53) Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.(54)Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (55)For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

It is time to put the milk aside and become men and women of God. Are you a Christian or not? Are you only interested in cute pictures on Facebook that say funny things or are you ready to be a soldier for God?

John 6:56He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Is Christ in you or are you just too busy to get the DAILY bread?

John 6:57As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. (58)This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. (59) These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

We will stop here today and I want you to ask yourself if you really want the manna from heaven or are you only interested in the bread of the flesh. Following God doesn’t mean this world is going to be easy. How easy was Christ’s trip through the flesh? Are you better than He was?

The Gospel of John is considered by historians to be the last of the canonical gospels to be written. Because of this and how is differs from the other three gospels many of them dismiss the book entirely. I am often amazed why they dismiss it. Have you ever noticed how these same “historians” will quote Josephus one minute and the next they will say how he is wrong about this and that. Some historians are of course better than others, but what most of them lack is one of the best tools God has given us to identify His fingerprint and it is that fingerprint we are going to look at today so let’s get started.

John 6:1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

Galilee again means circuit.

John 6:2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

Note why they are following him.

John 6:3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

Mountain’s always symbolize a nation or place of power.

John 6:4 And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

Notice how John explains what Passover is? There are some so called scholars that claim the gospels were written in Aramaic and later translated into Greek. It is true that Aramaic was the language of the Jews at that time and was the language that Christ himself spoke, but there wasn’t a single Jew living at the time that didn’t know what Passover was. If his audience was the Aramaic speaking Jews, then he wouldn’t have had to tell us what Passover is. It would be like having to explain Christmas.

John 6:5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? (6:6) And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

Obviously, this is a rhetorical question, but there is more to it than you would at first think. This is the first part of that fingerprint I told you about. Bread is symbolic of the manna from heaven, the Word of God, the body of Christ. So ask yourself, “Do you buy the word of God?”

John 6:7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

Remember Christ asked this question to prove Philip, but it’s also to prove you and to prove to us that His finger is upon this scripture. So let’s prove ourselves and take a look at this two hundred number.

In Joshua, right after the battle of Jericho, God told Israel not to take anything from the city (Joshua 6:18-19) but not everyone listened.

Joshua 7:20-21 And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: (21) When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

We have our two hundred number here along with the number fifty and a Babylonish garment. This garment was one of their priests garments. So what does that tell us about what he really took? What does God really want us to glean from this? That Achan was putting on the clothes (or wanting to) of a false religion (idolatry) and the numbers here drill the point home. Fifty is the number for the Holy Spirit, but in this case it is the number for the false spirit or you could go so far as to say Antichrist. Two hundred shows us the same thing that it does in John, namely that it is not sufficent. The garmets and spirit and bread or a false religion, if you will, are not sufficient to save you.

We see this same idea again with Absalom (David’s son that tried to take the throne). 2 Samuel 14:26 tells us how his hair was beautiful and weighed two hundred shekels and later in 2 Samuel 18 it is this same hair that got caught in a tree, ultimately causing his death. This is another example pointing us to this number two hundred not only being insufficient to save you, but also it is a hindrance to God.

I’ll give you one more example before we move on. Prior to David slaying Goliath, Saul said that anyone who slayed the giant may have his daughter’s hand in marriage. After David did, Saul said he wanted to have the foreskins of one hundred Philistines before he would give her to David. David went out to do just that, but he didn’t stop at one hundred. He gathered two hundred, but guess what? He got the daughter…but despite saving Israel from Goliath and despite gathering the two hundred foreskins it wasn’t sufficient to win over Saul.

It is easy for scholars to know what the number seven means, but two hundred? Scholars don’t look at those numbers the way we do and back before we had computers and databases to pull up and cross reference scriptures I daresay few, if any, in the ancient world knew the meaning of the word or even thought about it. God did and He put this number in here for us to know that despite what the world says about the scriptures we can have faith in Him and his word.

John 6:8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, (6:9) There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

Don’t over look who has the bread here. It was the lad. Remember Christ said? Matthew 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

See all the money in the world isn’t going to be enough if you look to the world for your bread, (read Matthew 25 and compare the foolish virgins that went to buy their oil) but if you go to Christ for your bread it will always be enough.

Now let’s look at the numbers here, as they are so important to understand the deeper meanings of the scriptures. Adding the number five and the number two (from verse 6:9) together give you seven which is the number for spiritual completion, but also we are given the element involved in that completion. Five means grace and two can means either division or union. What does this tell us? First, that without Christ’s sacrifice you cannot receive grace. But that is only a small faction of what he is showing us here. It’s also showing us a symbol of the bread and meat. Similar to the way God feed the tribes of Israel in the desert after they left Egypt. God feed them with manna and quail. Also, do you remember in verse four it said this is Passover? Do you remember what they were to do on Passover? They ate of the unleavened bread (barley loaves) and ate of the sacrificial lamb (fishes). Remember: 1 Corinthians 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Christ is our Passover and we are to pray for our DAILY bread. This can be a study in and of itself so for the sake of brevity I will just give you this to chew on: Exodus 16:12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.

John 6:10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

Numbers, numbers everywhere today. Five thousand again drives home the point that Christ has been trying to show us right from the beginning. One thousand is divine completeness and five again is grace, so we see ultimately for the masses, that are only interested in Christ’s miracles, this is pointing to the day of the Lord or the millennium.

John 6:11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

Notice how it is the disciples that distributed the food and not Christ, this is true today, but again should remind you of the millennium. If it doesn’t then keep in His Word.

John 6:12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

In the other gospels it tells us why they were to gather up these fragments. It symbolizes the extra crap that gets spread around by would be teachers and gossip hounds. In the desert, when Israel was fed with manna and the quail, they also did not keep leftovers but looked to God to provide their daily Bread.

John 6:13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

Twelve, points to governmental order and the twelve tribes. In the millennium the elect will do their job and keep the crap at bay.

I pray I didn’t overload your boat today and if I did just remember that everyone gathers the manna from heaven according to their eating. God Bless